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The population of the game usually stands around 5,000 concurrent users which is due to the fact that the game targets a very "niche" market (a combination of the Dark Souls and ARPG community). Personally? I still play because i want to support the dev team who keep adding more and more content to the game ranging from new skills, new monsters, new leagues, new items... and even new Acts every 3-4 months.

The community isn't the largest but it's definitely full of devoted players who continue to work with the new content provided to us and continue to support each other through trading and playing through the content together.

Which brings me to your second question which i answer with... It sounds like you're afraid of repetition and as much as i would love to recommend this game because i am such a huge fan, i can't. Why? This game is built on repetition, if you play the hardcore leagues then once your character dies then you will be repeating the "main campaign" again from the very beginning. If you play the softcore leagues then you won't have to restart but you will reach the point of "mapping" (end-game) faster which i will try to describe in some detail.

Once you reach Merciless difficulty which is your third playthrough of the Campaign (already there is repetition to reach end-game content) then at level 60+ you should start to get "Maps" dropped as items. These maps will be different zones depending on the item level and will roll affixes and suffixes to make the map more difficult which you can re-roll using the "currency items" to make the map more difficult or easier. Why would you want to make the map more difficult? The higher the map difficulty then the higher the chance of items dropping and higher rarity of items (the opposite is also true if you lower the map difficulty).

It's this end-game that makes most players on Path of Exile prefer Hardcore because you risk "losing your character" (being sent to standard league) if you die which makes you pose the question... Do i really want to increase the difficulty? Can my character handle it? What if (insert boss name here) is there? Are my elemental resistances sufficient? Etc, etc...

In Standard League? You die, lose XP (which is crippling but you can get that XP back... You can't bring your Standard character to Hardcore) and then you go back in or realize it's beyond your character's capabilities.

There are also "Races" that you can participate in which are separate to the game itself but still considered "end-game" meaning you have to create a brand new character to participate. These Races are specialized "Leagues" ranging from one-week, one-hour, one-month time periods which have different rules (Eg. Endless Ledge, Descent Champions...) but with the same objective, you have to clear the content as fast as you can without dying to progress as far as you can. If you do well then you receive race-points which at the end of the racing season will fetch you an item from the reward tier you reached which can range from rare unique item to Legacy uniques (items before they were changed which are typically better than their changed variants). Most will typically play these races to test their own knowledge of the game relative to other players because if you know the game well then you will usually perform well in these races.

My apologies for such a lengthy response but i feel that it's important that you make the decision for yourself after having the information laid out in front of you. It is very possible that you already knew half the things i explained from your last session with the game but... better to be safe than sorry!

Regardless, i would look forward to seeing you in-game but if not... Best of luck finding another game that has the features you are looking for!

Woooow thanks man! I couldnt ask for a better reply! =D Im very glad there are still people making good use of the forums (And not only the game ones).

But if i die in hardcore, does that mean i lose all my exp, gear and everything else and will start with as much as a newly created character does? Or will i just be sent to standard mode with the same stuff i had before?

Woooow thanks man! I couldnt ask for a better reply! =D Im very glad there are still people making good use of the forums (And not only the game ones).

But if i die in hardcore, does that mean i lose all my exp, gear and everything else and will start with as much as a newly created character does? Or will i just be sent to standard mode with the same stuff i had before?

If you die in hardcore everything on your character at the moment of death is transfered to standard. You lose nothing except access to hardcore storage.

No problem but in response to your inquiry, Min nailed it. Most players who have reached end-game are less upset about their character being sent to Softcore than the items on that character being sent to Softcore. This is especially true when some pieces of gear can cost 15 Exalted Orbs which is the second rarest "currency item" in the game.

As for Minti's comment, i will just add to it due to the significance of it and thankyou to Minti for bringing my attention to this. If you or anyone reading this intends to play Path of Exile, then i cannot stress how important it is for you to understand the technicalities behind creating your own character build. Even if you learn the technicalities and never experiment with building your own characters it will still help you with understanding the builds being posted on the official forums.

Why is this important? It will mean the difference between enjoying the game and never wanting to touch it again.
From personal experience, the most fun you will have is building your own character from scratch. There is something akin to having a child where you watch your character grow from a character that moves slow, attacks slow and deals mediocre damage to a character that powers through end-game content making the screen shake as enemies shatter around you. When that character dies? You look at what went wrong and improve. "Oh! Not enough resistances..." or "Oh! Next time i see that mob, i need to remember that it does (insert skills here)".

But as i said in my previous reply, the pros that i list above are also the game's cons depending on your disposition towards "hardcore" games.

EDIT: Ugh... I write so much that by the time i reply, the question has been answered, the conversation has moved on and my reply seems completely out of context. Oops.

So if i REALLY want to get into this SH!T like really want to be that full die hard PoE player.
With just some little knowledge of the game (only finished Act I). And begin all over again from scratch. What should i do? What mode? And do you have some tips?

PS: Thanks again for those who keep replying and helping me out i really appreciate it!